BEIJING, JULY 6, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Five members of the underground Catholic clergy have been arrested while trying to visit a priest recently freed from a labor camp, a U.S.-based religious rights group said, according to Reuters.
Fathers Kang Fuliang, Chen Guozhen, Pang Guangzhao and Joseph Yin and Deacon Wang Lijun, aged 25 to 32, were arrested in Baoding city in Hebei province on July 1, said the Connecticut-based Cardinal Kung Foundation.
They were on their way to visit Father Lu Genjun, who had just been released after three years in a labor camp, the foundation said Saturday. It gave no further details.
Although the Communist government says it respects religious freedom, it only allows freedom of worship to people who belong to religious organizations which it maintains under strict control. In 1951, it broke off relations with the Vatican.
ZENIT Daily dispatch - The World Seen from Rome
6. juli 2003